Description

Beneath the Greyrock Summit Trail lies a mostly broken buttress of rock home to two named crags, The Breakers lies at the west end of this buttress, while the Granite Sea is on it's more easterly aspect.

The Sea is home to 11 recorded climbs that ascend its two tiers, ranging from casual moderates to tough, heady 5.11 slab leads. Some lines sport bolts, and many are mixed - best to bring along a light Greyrock rack if you're exploring this crag - RPs/offsets, a standard set of nuts, and a handful of cams from micros on up to #2 Camalot will likely come in handy.

Getting There

Reaching the Granite Sea is accomplished by following the Greyrock Summit trail until it reaches the base of the wall, at which point climbers should head downhill to the east, reaching the base of the Breakers, and continuing along the base of the buttress to the Granite Sea.

Only three routes ascend its lower tier, and on can approach the upper tier by climbing one of these or, instead, by continuing to hike east past The Gardener Did It to a very broken, heavily forested section of rock. Scramble up some boulders and through some brush until it's possible to follow a lightly-forested ramp up left to an alcove that marks the base of the upper tier routes.

A word of warning - there is no established trail to the base of the Sea, so expect some adventurous bushwhacking, and be careful which trees and rocks you step on or brace yourself against - many trees, even some standing ones, are totally rotten, and many of the rocks are unstable. Routes that top out on this buttress end very close to the Greyrock Summit trail, while four bolted/mixed lines left of Easy Sailing end at a rappel anchor 130 feet off the deck.

This is a fantastic two-pitch climb on the lower tier of Granite Sea. P1: Assault the short but burly offwidth (left of the poison ivy fest), cruise up an enjoyable left-angling fist/hand crack, and then commit to thin face moves above, which gains a good belay atop a block. There's a big flake/horn thing to sling here.P2: Continue up the left-leaning hand-crack till it fizzles out, bust some thought-provoking face moves to gain the horizontal crack above, and lieback left to gain an easier slab...[more]Browse More Classics in CO